Robots may be configured to perform a variety of individual tasks, and may also be configured to perform a sequence of tasks in a manner determined by a state machine, e.g., in response to various sensor signals. In many instances, a manner in which a robot transitions between states of a state machine may be determined by one or more processors that are remote from the robot and/or that are not capable of traversing the state machine and causing the robot to perform corresponding tasks in real time. While many robots include what are known as “real time processors,” existing techniques for interacting with these real time processors to control robots may be highly complex and/or granular.